Tag Archives: ministry

Fifteen dead in food aid stampede in Morocco: ministry

People gather at the place where 15 people were killed when a stampede broke out in the southwestern Moroccan town of Sidi Boulaalam as food aid was being distributed in a market, in Sidi Boullaalam, Morocco November 20, 2017.

By Zakia Abdennebi

RABAT (Reuters) – Fifteen people were killed and five more injured when a stampede broke out in a southwestern Moroccan town on Sunday as food aid was being distributed in a market, the Interior Ministry said.

A hospital source put the death toll at 18, adding that most victims were women who had been scrambling for food handed out by a rich man in the small coastal town of Sidi Boulaalam.

A local journalist said the donor had organised similar handouts before, but this year some 1,000 people arrived, storming an iron barrier under which several women were crushed.

King Mohammed ordered that the victims’ families be given any assistance they needed and the wounded treated at his cost, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a criminal investigation had been opened.

Last month, the king dismissed the ministers of education, planning and housing and health after an economic agency found “imbalances” in implementing a development plan to fight poverty in the northern Rif region.

The Rif saw numerous protests after a fishmonger was accidentally crushed to death in a garbage truck in October 2016 after a confrontation with police, and he became a symbol of the effects of corruption and official abuse.

In July, the king pardoned dozens of people arrested in the protests and accused local officials of stoking public anger by being too slow to implement development projects.

 

(Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Cynthia Osterman)

 

Morningside disaster team in Florida – Lives can change in only a day

One home destroyed by Hurricane Irma in Immokalee, Florida,

By Kami Klein

Imagine being a hard working family in a small agricultural town in Florida.  You don’t have much but everyday you give it the best you can. You work hard, you love your family and you support your church.  But then a storm like Hurricane Irma hits and is unlike any storm you can remember.  The town you knew, the job you went to everyday,  your home where your family and friends gathered and the simple vital items such as food and clean water are gone.

This is the fate of thousands of people in Immokalee, Florida, one of the hardest hit communities of Hurricane Irma.  With no power, lack of good drinking water and warm meals for families, the people in this community have been devastated.  At this very moment, the donations you have provided through our Disaster Relief fund  are giving hope and food to hungry people who have lost literally everything.

Yesterday our Morningside team, Mondo DeLaVega, Ricky Bakker, Tammy Sue Bakker, Daina Martin and our camera crew David Zorob, Hamilton Neumann and Adam Armstrong, began handing out the food from our food buckets.  The people stood in line for hours, waiting to fill bags, boxes and buckets up with rice, beans, pancake mix, vegetable stew, milk, banana and apple chips and so much more because of YOUR gifts to the relief effort.  At times, the line seemed never ending, and the experience of seeing so many who were waiting so patiently for help stirred the deepest emotions in the volunteers who were there.  

Another home destroyed by Hurricane Irma in Florida

Another-home-in-florida-damaged-by-Hurricane-Irma

Tammy Sue Bakker attempted to share the emotions that the volunteers were feeling. “If you have a heart, it’s just so hard to talk about it…We’ve got to keep helping people.  We have no choice!”  

Mondo and Tammy Sue agreed that the entire team has been completely changed by this humbling experience, and the needs they have seen from the disaster in Houston and now Florida are surreal.  On a Facebook live message Mondo wanted to deeply impress the great need that is going on all over the world right now.  

“We need your help.  This is not just a one day effort, this is an everyday kind of effort.  People need ministries like this one to give food and supplies.  Every little bit helps here but please, be a part of what we are doing right now.  This food we give today will only last a little while and then these families have to go out to find more.  Pray for this community, the volunteers, donate what you can and please pray for us!”  

The crew has been busy gathering stories and filming the community of Immokalee. The relief effort that is ongoing will be shared soon on The Jim Bakker Show. 

Danny Viera owns the only Christian bookstore in Fr. Myers. He has been coordinating all of the food for this effort.

Danny Viera owns the only Christian bookstore in Fr. Myers. He has been coordinating all of the food for this effort.

Your donations are making a huge impact in this disaster relief effort, but the urgency and the need is quite overwhelming!  We need you!  

So many have asked about our ministry going to help in Puerto Rico.  We are doing all we can to get there.  There are many logistics involved in getting this food to where it needs to go, so we must rely on your compassion and financial generosity to help us get these supplies to those that are starving right now in that country!  

Again, we thank you for your prayers!  Those many people who stood in line yesterday, their arms filled with food for their families when they walked home cannot thank you as they would wish but you are in their grateful prayers tonight!

With so much need around the world right now, it takes all of us to make a difference!  Please be a part of what God is asking us to do now!  

Give your gift today!! 

Former FrontPoint manager, out of jail, wants to run prison ministry

FILE PHOTO: Joseph "Chip" Skowron, who ran FrontPoint Partners' healthcare funds, exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York April 13, 2011. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) – A former manager at defunct hedge fund FrontPoint Partners who served more than three years in prison for insider trading on Monday asked a U.S. judge to end his supervised release early so he can help a run a Christian ministry aimed at prisoners.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, a lawyer for Joseph “Chip” Skowron said the request was warranted in light of his client’s “exemplary” behavior since his April 2011 arrest.

While serving time at Schuylkill Federal Prison Camp in Pennsylvania, Skowron, 48, worked as a tutor, started a Sunday Bible study and led Monday morning religious meetings, according to his lawyer Joshua Epstein.

After serving the last several months of his sentence in home confinement and following his release last November, Skowron co-founded a chapter of the New Canaan Society, a Connecticut-based Christian group, Epstein wrote. The chapter, NCS Inside, is devoted to ministering to federal and state prison inmates.

The NCS website describes itself as a men’s-only group who “gather together to encourage each other in friendship and faith.”

Epstein said prisons have refused to let Skowron enter to meet with prisoners because he is on supervised release.

“This is limiting Mr. Skowron’s efforts on behalf of NCS Inside, as well as NCS Inside’s effectiveness and reach,” Epstein wrote.

Federal prosecutors are not objecting to Skowron’s request, according to Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan.

Skowron pleaded guilty in August 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and obstruct justice, admitting that he traded in the securities of Human Genome Sciences Inc in 2008 based on non-public information.

In a separate civil case, Skowron was ordered to pay back $31 million of his compensation to Morgan Stanley, which owned FrontPoint between 2006 and 2011, minus a $6 million penalty he was already ordered to pay in his criminal case.

Investors began pulling out of FrontPoint in the wake of the insider trading charges, ultimately forcing the firm, which once managed as much as $11 billion, to shut down.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Dr. Gary Smalley, Champion to Marriage and Family Passes on to Heaven

“Life is relationships; the rest is just details.”   Gary Smalley

The PTL Television Network, Jim Bakker Show, the Bakker family and all of us here at Morningside are praying today for the friends and family of a wonderful man, Dr. Gary Smalley who passed into heaven over the weekend in Colorado Springs, Colorado.    

Dr. Smalley devoted his professional life to guiding others in repairing marriages that were all but broken.  He and his beautiful wife Norma began an organization devoted to families and to the intimate and heartfelt ministry of developing good and solid marriages in 1979.  Their organization eventually evolved into retreat centers in 10 different cities.

Gary’s heart was to educate and inspire couples to love better and last a life-time!  But, even with the thousands of couples that he has helped through his retreat centers, counseling, speaking engagements and books, he spoke proudest of his two wonderful sons, Greg and Mike, his beautiful daughter Kari, and the amazing families they are raising. Every single day, there was never a doubt that he was completely aware of the love and blessings he had with the light of his life, his wife Norma.

Gary Smalley became one of the country’s best-known authors and speakers on family relationships. He is the author and co-author of 60 books along with several popular films and videos. He has spent over 35 years learning, teaching, and counseling. In a heartfelt post on facebook a friend wrote these words,  

“For the zillions profoundly impacted by Gary & Norma Smalley’s ministry and all those who have resurrected & salvaged dead-end relationships…and for those who just want to know how to do relationships right….this will be a loss heard around the world for decades to come.”

According to a post by his daughter on her facebook page, Dr. Smalley’s last days were spent surrounded by his loving family. The last words spoken over him were “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;”  Numbers 6:24-25

According to an article in Christian News Today, a celebration of life will take place Saturday, March 19 at 3:00 p.m. at College of the Ozarks Chapel in Point Lookout, Missouri. It will be open to the public for all who wish to honor Smalley’s life and legacy.

Our hearts and prayers are with Dr. Smalley’s family and friends but we also feel the joy of knowing that he is where love begins and ends, held within God’s loving arms.  

 

MMA Fighter’s Ministry Helps Combat Vets With PTSD

An MMA fighter says he feels called by God to help the men and women of our armed forces who suffer from PTSD.

Chad Robichaux said that when he retired from the Marines after eight tours of duty in Afghanistan, he almost lost his family because of PTSD.  He then discovered “God’s blueprint” for life after his wife in a last-ditch effort to save their marriage contacted a pastor that Chad knew to speak with him.

The pastor showed Chad that God had a plan for his life that included overcoming PTSD.  Working together, they reconnected Chad with his family and saved his marriage.

In 2011, Chad felt led to take that healing he experienced and use it to help other veterans who were in the same situation he faced coming home.  WoodsEdge Community Church joined with him to form the Mighty Oaks Warrior Program.

“Through the mentoring I found that all the programs I have been through, all the pills, all the counseling, nothing had worked liked it did when I let Christ in my life and aligned my life with the life he intended me to live,” Robichaux told The Christian Post. “When something like this happens to you, you can’t help but share it. Here we are four years later and 710 guys later who experienced the same story.”

The program has now branched out into churches across the country with reports of huge success.

“Bring Jesus into the equation and watch them get set free,” said John Mizerak of Life Church in Virginia.  He noted that not a single suicide or divorce has taken place among the men participating in the program.

“Communities of faith need to really listen to the needs of veterans and offer a helping hand to veteran families, especially ones that are transitioning from a time of military service,” Ruth Frey, director of programs at the Washington National Cathedral in the District of Columbia said.

“It is also important for people of faith to advocate for veterans needs with their state and national legislators. As Christians, we are called to care for our neighbors and these are some of the ways we can live that out.”

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Head Diagnosed With Cancer

The head of the influential youth organization InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is having to step down from his position after being diagnosed with cancer.

Alec Hill, who has headed the group since 2001, announced that he has been diagnosed with myelodysplasia, a form of bone marrow cancer.  The disease usually progresses into acute myelogenous leukemia with five year survival rates from 15-70% depending on treatment.

Hill will begin his treatment June 10th after a Board of Trustees meeting to appoint an interim president.

“Alec has played a key role in encouraging and shepherding us,” InterVarsity Board Chair Ron Williams said in a statement.  “And we pray that he will experience God’s shepherding and grace as he faces the unexpected journey ahead.”

During the time Hill headed the organization, the group had a 10 percent increase in membership and a 23 percent increase in overall involvement in the organization.  He also started a donor gift program that has raised over $70 million for the group’s worldwide ministry.

InterVarsity began in 1877 in Britain when a group of students gathered for Bible study and prayer at Cambridge University.

President Discusses Need For Fathers At Catholic Event

President Obama addressed the Catholic-Evangelical Summit on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown University Tuesday and spoke of the importance of faith and family.

“Faith-based groups across the country and around the world understand the centrality and the importance of [poverty] in a intimate way — in part because these faith-based organizations are interacting with folks who are struggling and know how good these people are, and know their stories, and it’s not just theological, but it’s very concrete. They’re embedded in communities and they’re making a difference in all kinds of ways,” Obama said.

The President went on to say that impacting youth was vital for society.

“When I think about my own Christian faith and my obligations,” Obama continued, “it is important for me to do what I can myself — individually mentoring young people, or making charitable donations, or in some ways impacting whatever circles and influence I have. But I also think it’s important to have a voice in the larger debate. And I think it would be powerful for our faith-based organizations to speak out on this in a more forceful fashion.”

The President specifically spoke of the need for fathers to stay with their families, especially in the black community.

“I am a black man who grew up without a father and I know the cost that, I paid for that. And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence, I think my daughters are better off.”

The summit had a goal to “make overcoming poverty a moral imperative and urgent national priority.”

Ex-Boxing Champion’s Mansion To Become Church

At one point, it was a spectacle of boxing trophies, lavish parties and even a few tigers roaming around the ground.

Now, the former mansion of legendary boxer Mike Tyson is being turned into a church after the landowner who bought the mansion at auction donated it to a local church.

The building in Southington, Ohio was built with gold-plated furnishings and even a jacuzzi room with mirrored ceilings.  The mansion still has many of the extravagant touches but has been abandoned since the boxer went bankrupt and was forced to sell almost all of his possessions.

The mansion was given to Living Word Sanctuary that plans to have the building converted to a ministry center by the end of the year.  They’ve even invited Mike Tyson to come and attend the first service in the building when it’s ready to go.

“How we stumbled upon the place was really God’s grace because we had no intentions of looking…,”said Pastor Nick Dejacimo of Living Word.  The church plans to have Vacation Bible Schools and nature events at the grounds along with weekly worship services and Bible studies.

The church is currently meeting inside a YMCA in Warren, Ohio.

Find Your Calling

One of the many things that Jim and I love about Morningside is the people that work, volunteer and study at this ministry!  From 18 to 80, the talent and creativity absolutely fill this place up!  No job is more important than the other because it takes each and every person to keep this ministry going. We get so excited when one of our staff or students find that special gift, blessed by God, and is able to glorify Him while excelling at their job.  Sometimes people will begin in one department but move to various areas of the ministry to find their right fit.   One thing is for certain, when you put Him in your heart as you go about your work, He will bless your efforts and will reveal your calling! Continue reading →

Cuba Builds First Catholic Church Since 1959

The first Catholic Church in 55 years is coming to Sandino, Cuba.

The construction is significant because a number of priests were exiled, jailed or killed in the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro.

“There is money to begin, building materials to begin, and we have the permissions to start, so everything is ready,” said Jorge Enrique Serpa Pérez, the bishop of Pinar del Río, according to Breitbart News.

Members of the American Catholic Church, especially those serving Cuban refugees and exiles in Florida, were very skeptical about the reason for the government allowing the new church to be built.

“First, I am concerned that normalizing diplomatic ties without addressing [Fidel] Castro’s horrendous human rights record serves as a defacto endorsement for one of the most oppressive regimes in recent history,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

“As a result of Castro’s totalitarian rule, millions live in poverty, thousands lie in prisons, and many have lost their lives. In addition, the God-given rights of Cuban citizens are held hostage to governmental persecution.”

Father Cyril Castro says that the new church is proof that the faith is not lost in Cuba.

“People can say that Catholicism was lost in Cuba, but it’s not true,” he added. “The family of faith has endured. In fact, we are showing the fruit of those roots.”